"There are eight digital banks trying to build the Chime of the Philippines. No one's building the Ramp or the Brex. That's the opportunity." I talked with Zach Marks, founder and CEO of Jia, on Startup Hustle this week. Jia is building modern digital banking for small businesses in emerging…
"There's no magical growth lever. You just do a good job, every day, for 23 years, and the referrals do the rest." I talked with Matt Watts, founder of MWA Projects and author of Made With Ambition, on Startup Hustle this week. Matt designs and builds some of the most…
"Both things are true. Software jobs are projected to grow 15%, and 74% of employers say they can't fill the roles. That's the whole story of IT staffing in 2026." This week on Startup Hustle, Matt Brown, Full Scale's head of marketing, put me in the guest chair to walk…
"AI scribes are just a feature. The record of clinical judgment is the moat." I talked with Kush Shah, founder and CEO of Noted Dent, on Startup Hustle this week. Noted Dent uses AI to handle clinical documentation for dentists, so practitioners aren't stuck writing notes at 11pm or on…
"Back in the 1900s when I was crossing the Great Plains in a covered wagon, programming in the back, the cover headline was: Software Development is Dead." I talked with Anthony Jackson, a CTO with 30 years across healthcare tech and enterprise software and author of the Architecture Protocol series,…
I don't view engineers being out of a job. I view software engineers finally coming back to a real job." I talked with Adrian Gutierrez, co-founder of Ledgre, on Startup Hustle this week. Ledgre is an AI-native accounting platform built specifically for real estate investors, putting agentic AI to work…
Most engineering teams are still optimizing for the wrong thing. They chase the speed of code when the real bottleneck is the speed of context. Matt Watson and Eban Bisong, founder and CEO of Senvi, get into what actually changes when AI moves from a coding tool to a teammate.…
Most people are already asking AI about their health. Almost none of them believe the answers. Around 40% use it to make wellness choices, but fewer than 5% trust what it says. Matt Watson and Josh Anthony, CEO of Nlumn, dig into why. Josh has spent 25 years in food…
Matt Watson sits down with Beth Epperson, founder and CEO of Legacy Purpose, here in the Kansas City area. Beth came up through marketing and branding, including the brand launch for Hyvee Arena, before deciding to build something of her own. Her company is built around two products. Aligned Legacy…
Data centers are multiplying fast, and the energy demands are staggering. Matt Watson sits down with Tim Tarver, founder and CEO of Exceed Geo Energy, to talk about one of the most underrated power sources in the conversation: geothermal. Tim breaks down how his company is adapting drilling technology from…
Most retail investors don't know what to do after they open a brokerage account. Sean Tepper was one of them until he built a traffic light rating system for stocks and turned it into a SaaS platform used by 13,000 customers across 50 countries. In this episode of Startup Hustle,…
Eric Ries wrote The Lean Startup. Sold 2 million copies. Helped hundreds of people build companies from nothing. Now he's back with a harder question: why do so many of those companies eventually go bad? In this episode, Matt Watson sits down with Eric to talk about his new book…
Most founders get the order wrong. They build for two years, then ask a marketer how to sell it. Connie Lund flipped the script. She started Zaboom with no dev team, no code background, and no VC funding. What she had was 50+ years of combined marketing and product experience,…
Most product managers are just project managers with a fancier title. They make zero real decisions, answer to everyone, and wonder why nothing ships on time. Willis Jackson has been building product teams for over a decade. He's blacklisted entire companies from his hiring pool. And he moved to the…
Most founders think investors bet on ideas. They don't. Dave Lambert has funded over 2,000 companies through RightSide Capital, and he's seen this pattern play out thousands of times. Great product. No revenue traction. Wrong ask, wrong timing. Automatic no. In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt sits down with…
Matt Watson sits down with Mohan Reddy, serial entrepreneur and Chief Scientist at Cornerstone AI Labs, to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping the way we think about work, skills, and human potential. Mohan shares the origin story of Skyhive—a workforce intelligence platform built to reskill and upskill people at…
AI is changing how kids learn. But are schools ready? Katie Boody Adorno is the founder and CEO of LeanLab Education. She's spent 13 years trying to close the opportunity gap in public education. In this episode, she and Matt break down how COVID widened learning disparities, why high-dosage tutoring…
Zach Klempf is back! He joined Matt Watson on one of the early episodes of the show. Now, Zach is president of AutoManager, a private equity group with five automotive software companies under its umbrella. In this episode, Zach and Matt get into how AI is making senior engineers more…
In this episode, entrepreneur Chris Jones shares his journey from personal tragedy to building MatchRite Care, a healthcare data integration platform. He discusses product-market fit, scaling strategies, and the importance of community and continuous learning in entrepreneurship. ⏱️ Episode Breakdown 00:00 The Entrepreneurial Journey Begins 02:54 The Birth of MatchRite…
In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson interviews Mark Roberge, a former HubSpot executive and current venture capitalist, about his journey from engineering to sales and the importance of scaling startups. Mark discusses the genesis of HubSpot, the significance of sales in startups, and the concept of product-market fit.…
In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson interviews Krishna Oza, Founder and COO of Git Hired, discussing the challenges of hiring software engineers, particularly for startups. Krishna shares his personal experiences that led to the creation of GitHired, an AI-driven platform designed to help startups find the right technical…
In this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt Watson interviews John Morlan, founder and CEO of Smarter Risk, about the transformative impact of AI on startups. John shares his journey of integrating AI into his business, enhancing productivity, and improving collaboration with developers. He discusses the balance between product-led and sales-led…
In this episode, Matt Watson interviews Matt Haycox, an experienced entrepreneur who shares insights from his 25 years in business, focusing on capital raising, the challenges of entering the tech space as a non-technical leader, and the impact of AI on business development. Haycox discusses his journey from traditional businesses…
Nobody cares about your features. They care about their problems. Yet 90% of founders lead with "Here's what we do" instead of "Here's why you should care." What problem does your startup solve? Share below 👇 Full episode: https://www.startuphustlepodcast.com/the-best-startup-pitch-framework #StartupTips #PitchAdvice #StartupFounder #VentureCapital #EntrepreneurLife #StartupCommunity
